Girl Scouts in the Adirondacks

CHAPTER EIGHT

JAKE'S INTERVIEW WITH A SKUNK

"Gilly, do you know of any vegetable dye we can find in the woods to dye some burlap for decorations?" asked Julie one day.

"Yes, you can take the berries and leaves of red or staghorn sumac and boil them together to make a black dye, or ink. If you need ink in a hurry, you can take the Genus Coprinus, commonly known as the ink mushroom, and pluck it at the end of its first day. The spores are black, and the gills turn into a black fluid at the last. This produces a splendid writing ink, or will dye grass, quills, and other wildwood stuffs."

"Speaking of quills, Gilly – why can't we have chickens as the Grey Fox boys have?" asked Joan.

"What would you do if they got the gapes, and no one would feed them chopped onions?" laughed Mr. Gilroy.

"I'm not looking for trouble, but for pets to have about camp," retorted Joan.

"I'd hardly call a chicken a pet!" laughed Julie.

"Even so, Julie, it would cluck and appear to be friendly, even it wasn't."

"What you scouts need is a good frisky dog for a pet. You can have chickens, if you like, but they are a nuisance. They stray away to lay their eggs, and if they were kept cooped you'd have to spend valuable time making a suitable inclosure. But a dog will go hiking with you, guard you at night from elephants and other prowling animals of the jungle, and be a fine old pal to boot," said Mr. Gilroy.

"Oh, why didn't we think to bring Jippy," exclaimed Amy. Jip was a little poodle of about fifteen years and had had the rickets for the past five years, so he had to be carried about.

The moment the scouts saw that Amy was in earnest they fairly roared, and Judith finally said: "Oh, Amy's catching the ingénue habit from Betty! What shall we do with two of them on hand?"

"Had we but known of this dire need of a dog, we would have brought Towser – had he lived. He was only twenty-two this March, and had full use of his bark even though he had no teeth or eyesight. But, alas! alas! Towser is no more!" sighed Julie, rolling her eyes.

As Towser had been one of the "old settlers" in Elmertown, he was known to every man, woman and child there. Many a time, because he was stone-deaf and had not heard the blast from the horn, some one would have to rush out to rescue him from a passing automobile. So Julie's lament caused a new burst of merriment.

"Stop all fooling now, scouts, and listen to me," said Mr. Gilroy. "I mean a regular dog – an Irish terrier, or a bulldog, to chum with and be of some good to you. How'd you like it?"

"There ain't no sech critter in camp," retorted Julie.

"But I know where to get one! His name is Jake, and he is very fond of the ladies, I'm told."

"His name sounds dreadfully rakish, Gilly," teased Joan.

"If Jacob is as faithful as his name would imply, we'd like to meet him," added Mrs. Vernon, smiling.

"You shall. He lives at the farm where my overseer is, and the next time Mr. Benson is due here, I'll see that Jake accompanies him. If both sides are mutually attracted, the dog shall stay to give you scouts something to do," declared Mr. Gilroy.

"What kind of a dog is he, Gilly?" asked Betty, eagerly.

"He is a prize Airedale. But he is so clever that he tries to run everything on the farm, consequently Mr. Benson always has to separate Jake from the other dogs in the neighborhood."

For the next two days the scouts were kept busy constructing a fine kennel for Jake to live in when he joined their camp. Everything imaginable was done to add to the comfort and luxury of this "dog's life"; and the third day they started for the bungalow to be introduced to Jake, who was expected to arrive that morning.

It was a warm, drowsy day, and the wildwood creatures seemed to be keeping quiet. Even the bees hummed less noisily over the flowers they were robbing of nectar. The girls strolled slowly along the pathway, stopping now and then to watch a bird or examine a flower. They were just passing the bend where the tumbling brook could be plainly seen from the trail when, suddenly, Julie held up a warning hand for quiet.

Every one stopped short and waited. She pointed silently across the bushes in the direction of a long fallen tree that lay on the bank of the stream. The scouts looked, but saw nothing to cause this interest. Then she whispered warily, "I saw a big creature creeping along that log!"

"Really!"

"What did it look like? Which way did it go?" were questions hoarsely whispered.

"It crawled on that log and suddenly disappeared. Maybe it jumped into the water when it saw us. I am thinking it was a beaver," returned Julie.

"Oh, how wonderful! If we could only see it at work," cried some of the scouts.

"How big was it, Julie?" now asked Mrs. Vernon.

"It went so fast that I couldn't see well, but I should say it was about as big as a very large cat, – maybe larger if we were closer," said Julie.

"Dear me, if we didn't have to go for Jake we might sit and wait for it to appear again. If it is a beaver, I'd love to watch it build a dam," sighed Ruth.

"I hope Jake won't want to chase it, on our way back," Betty worried, as the thought struck her.

"We'll hold Jake on a leash. And if he doesn't make a fuss we might creep over and watch for the animal's appearance again," added Julie.

"Then the sooner we go and get Jake, the sooner we'll be back here," was the sensible remark of Joan.

The scouts now hurried along the trail and soon reached the bungalow, where a splendid Airedale was sleeping in the sunshine. He was stretched out full length right in the way where one would have to pass to go up the steps to the verandah.

"Oh, are you Jake?" called Julie quickly, when she saw the dog.

"Isn't he a beaut?" cried Joan, admiring the shapely form as it jumped up to growl at the visitors.

"Why, Jake, don't begin our relations with a growl! Don't you know we have to keep the peace all summer?" laughed Julie, snapping her fingers to the dog.

Mr. Gilroy heard voices and came out on the verandah. The moment he greeted the scouts familiarly, Jake wagged his stump of a tail and ran up to show his friendship for his master's friends.

The girls fussed over the dog immediately, and Mr. Gilroy smiled. "Well, what do you think of him, scouts? Is he homely enough to win your pity? You know it is said, 'Pity is akin to love.'"

"He's a regular peach, Gilly!" exclaimed Joan.

"Just what we need at camp," added Judith.

And in the next ten minutes the dog had won high favor with his future companions. Then the scouts told about the animal they believed to be a beaver, so they wanted to hurry back and watch.

"But hold to the leash if you go near the log. Jake is a born hunter," advised Mr. Benson.

"Oh, he is very obedient if you speak sternly to him," added Mr. Gilroy. "If he tugs or wants to run, just command in severe tones, 'To heel, Jake,' and he will obey like a lamb."

Jake wagged his tail as he watched Mr. Gilroy, and when the order was given, 'To heel, Jake,' he crept behind his master.

"Oh, the darling! Doesn't he mind splendidly!" cried several of the scouts.

"I'll come along pretty soon. Wait for me near the log where you saw the beaver. I'll finish up with Benson and then join you there," said Mr. Gilroy, as the scouts started down the trail again, leading Jake by the leash.

Every one was delighted with the meek and obedient dog, and the fussing was accepted by him as his due, but he paid no attention to the numerous pats and endearing names given him as they walked along. Then they reached the open space where the log bounded the edge of the running water. It was about a hundred yards from the trail and distinctly visible because the brook was lower than the footpath where the scouts stood.

"There it is! I saw it!" exclaimed Joan, excitedly.

At the same moment Jake also saw something doubtful moving swiftly out of sight back of the log. The girls ran over to the bushes to see the better, and Julie's hold on the leash relaxed unconsciously. In that same second, Jake took mean advantage of her inattention to him and darted away.

"Oh, oh! Come back here, Jake!" yelled Julie instantly.

But the dog stood upon a rock, his ears erect, his nose sniffing as he pointed it in the direction of the log. His tail trembled spasmodically and the hair along his spine stood up stiffly.

"I say, to heel, Jake. Come back, to heel!" shouted every scout in the group. But Jake was deaf to their calls.

Then the Captain called to him, but he bounded from the rock and managed to force his way through the bushes, the leash catching here and there on stumps, on sharp rocks, or on bushes.

"What shall we do? Now he'll kill the little beaver!" wailed Betty, wringing her hands.

"Some one run back and get Gilly! He'll make him mind," ordered Julie.

"Who's Orderly for the Day? I want to wait and watch what he does," said Joan.

"Oh, pshaw! I'm Orderly, and I s'pose I've got to go," declared Judith, impatiently.

"I'll go for you, Judy, 'cause I can't bear to wait here and see Jake kill anything," said Betty, deeply distressed.

"All right, Judy, – let Betty go instead, if she likes," agreed the Corporal. So Betty ran swiftly away while the other scouts resumed their coaxings to draw Jake away from the log.

Julie now started to break away through the bush to get the dog, and several of the girls followed closely at her heels. When they reached the place where they had seen something move, they also saw tracks in the soft soil.

"It really is a wild animal," said Julie, excited at sight of the footprints.

"But what? Do you know?" asked Judith.

"No, but it must be a beaver – or a fox. I don't know which," confessed Julie.

But they couldn't get at Jake. He was racing excitedly up and down on the log, his nose close to the strangely odorous scent, and all the commands and persuasions from the scouts failed to make the least impression on him. His nervous short yelps showed how keen he was to have a face-to-face bout with the animal.

Julie tried to step on the leash, but he dragged her foot so that she suddenly sat down violently on the ground. Then he nosed under the grass that hung over the brook, and finally swam over to the other side. There he stood and watched nervously, but the girls could not get him back again.

"Talk about his minding! Why, he's the cussedest dog I ever saw!" complained Julie, as she got up and shook her clothes free of the briars.

"There's no use standing in this baking sun to look at Jake standing on the other bank!" exclaimed Joan, angrily eying the disobedient dog.

"We'll go back to the shady trail and watch for Gilly," said Julie, starting back to join the Captain. But they kept calling to Jake as they retraced their steps.

When they got back to the slight elevation where Mrs. Vernon and Amy had waited, anxiously watching results, they saw Jake make a leap and swim quickly back across the brook to the log.

"He must have seen or heard something that time," whispered Hester.

"Yes, 'cause he's stretched out on that log nervously wagging his tail with his eyes glued on something," admitted Amy.

Then they caught their breath. The scouts saw a movement in the green leaves at the end of the log and then – Jake was creeping stealthily across that log, as if he also saw what he wanted to pounce upon.

"Oh, oh! Jake's got it! He's jumped upon it!" screamed Julie, frantically.

"Why, it's a great big tomcat! They're fighting!" cried Hester, too excited to stand still, but jumping up and down.

"A cat! Gilly hasn't a cat that color!" declared Joan.

"Girls!" fairly hissed Julie. "I bet it's a wildcat – and it will kill Jake as sure as anything!"

"No, no! Oh, girls, I just saw it, too! It's a skunk! Run, run – for your lives!" cried Mrs. Vernon, turning to run up the trail towards the bungalow.

But several of the scouts would not desert the dog. He had carried the skunk off its feet with his unexpected leap upon it, and the two rolled and fought madly for supremacy. The leash, instead of tripping Jake, got tangled in the skunk's legs, and both animals rolled back and forth.

The enraged beast fired the deadly fluid to blind her antagonist, but it drenched the fallen tree only. Then Jake caught a grip on her throat and shook her head; still she was game and kept on struggling.

Again they rolled over together, the skunk trying to get to the brink of the water, where she would manage to roll them both in. But Jake understood that motive, too, and braced his feet against the stones in their way.

A second volley of the ill-smelling spray from the skunk struck at random, and then Jake gave her neck another sudden shake. This time it was effective, and the head suddenly hung limp. Jake had broken her neck, and was the victor!

He now took great pains to drag the trophy through the brush to present to his friends in the roadway. The leash caught several times and almost snapped his own neck, and the skunk was heavy, but he managed to drag it along.

When Julie saw his intent she screamed and warned the girls to flee! And in running up the trail they met Mr. Gilroy, who had been summoned by half-crazed Betty's crying, "Jake and the beaver are killing each other!"

Mr. Gilroy did not stop to hear what Julie tried to gasp, but he ran down and saw Jake bringing the skunk out into the pathway.

"To heel! to heel, Jake!" shouted Mr. Gilroy, holding his nose when the dog tried to jump upon him in the ecstasy of having achieved such a great deed.

"What shall we do with him? He can't sleep at Dandelion camp to-night," wailed the girls, as they, too, held their noses.

"I'll have to take him back to the barn and have Hiram turn the hose on him for twenty-four hours."

"Isn't there a reward for skunks in the country?" now asked the Captain.

"Not only a reward, but the pelts are valuable since they became so fashionable," remarked Mr. Gilroy, complacently.

"Well, Jake's earned his keep to-day, then," declared Judith.

"But it will cost more than the skunk brings to pay for the nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles of fleur-de-lis toilet water Gilly will have to use to change Jake's scent!" laughed Julie.

CHAPTER NINE

LESSONS IN TRACKING

"Well, scouts! That shows us how little we know about wild animal's tracks," remarked Mrs. Vernon, after Jake had been made to go back to the bungalow, and the Troop went on to camp.

"I could have sworn that skunk's footprints were a coon's or a fox's, – or something big!" exclaimed Julie, trying to justify her mistake.

"To me, the tracks in the soil looked like a lynx's, or something," added Joan, hoping to cover the ignominy of having unearthed a skunk without knowing the animal.

"Isn't there some sort of book that will teach us how to recognize tracks, girls?" asked Hester.

"Is there, Verny? Maybe we can get one at the bungalow," added Julie.

"I don't know of any at this moment, but Mr. Gilroy surely will know," replied the Captain.

So they all went to the bungalow the next morning to inquire after Jake's scent, and also to borrow any books on the subject they had discussed.

"Yes, I have several books, and let me tell you they are precious, too. There are but few on this subject, and the one I consider the best was compiled by Ernest Seton-Thompson under great difficulties. He had to gather all information from plaster casts made in the tracks themselves, or from sketches, or from camera pictures taken on the spot.

"As every different animal leaves a different track, there are many illustrations necessary in such a work, and that makes the book most desirable and also very expensive. But it is great fun to study the pictures and then try to recognize the tracks in the woods."

"We haven't found any about camp," said Judith, regretfully.

"There must be all sorts of tracks there, but you don't know how to find them. Now, if you want to study this book and then practice early some morning, I'll come down and help find the tracks," Mr. Gilroy said.

"Oh, great! Will you come to-morrow morning?" asked the girls.

"Hadn't we better study the book first, scouts, and let Gilly know when we are ready to go tracking?" suggested the Captain.

So for a time every one was busy reading the book and trying to discover a track in the woods near camp. But Julie laughed as she said, "It isn't likely that a wild animal will prowl close to our camp at night. We'll have to hunt one some distance away."

Mr. Gilroy overheard the remark as he came down the trail. "Sometimes the animals will come quite close to camp just to find out what it is that is intruding on their forest domain."

"Well, then, I wish they'd hurry and come here!" declared Judith.

"When you are ready to hunt tracks, I'll arrange some baits around your camp grounds; and the next morning I'll vow you'll see that you've had callers while you slept. So quiet are they that you won't hear them, either," said Mr. Gilroy.

"We are ready to hunt now, Gilly. We know everything in the book and are crazy to test it," said Joan, eagerly.